East of Eden Commentary

When thinking about the gift offering in the biblical story of Cain and Abel and its impact, one can see many similarities in East of Eden. Cain brought to God “the fruit of the ground” and Abel offered God “the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof” (Gen 4 KJV). God preferred the gift of Abel to the gift of Cain.

To show that man is surrounded by good and evil no matter where they are, Steinbeck describes the setting in a contrasting way to represent the good side and the bad side of nature. He

The biblical story of Cain and Abel also plays a central role in the novel East of Eden. The novel portrays this analogy through the characters of both Charles and Adam, and Cal and Aron. In the Christian Old Testament, The Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve's sons, Cain and Abel, offer sacrifices to God. Because God prefers Abel's gift over Cain's, Cain becomes infuriated and kills his brother in a jealous rage. The characters of Charles and Adam Trask, who share the initials C&A with their biblical forebears, closely follow the Cain and Abel paradigm. Cyrus Trask favors Adam's birthday gift of a puppy over Charles' gift of an expensive knife, and Charles almost beats his brother Adam to death in a jealous rage. However, unlike Charles, Adam becomes the wanderer. Finally, Adam then later moves to California, where he settles and raises his twin sons. His brother, Charles, remains on their Connecticut farm. When Charles dies, he leaves his fortune to his brother: clearly, although jealousy drove them apart, the brotherly bond is still there. Years later, Adam's wife Cathy, or Kate, gives birth to the next generation of Trask brothers, Caleb Trask and Aron Trask; another set of brothers who share the initials C&A. Unsurprisingly, these brothers perpetuate the Cain and Abel ideology. After the birth of their sons, Cathy abandons Adam, and he sinks into such a severe depression that he neglects to even name his children. Samuel suggests to Adam that he name the children Cain and

The sermon-like feel of the chapter is effective because it motivates the audience, willing the workers to come together and unite against the elite. The words that Steinbeck chooses to use in this chapter not only resemble biblical language, they also show a clear contrast with how the land is being used. The biblical language can be recognized when Steinbeck beautifully depicts California before the greed manifested. He describes what can be perceived as paradise, an allusion of sorts to the Garden of Eden. This language and allusion brings the audience a sense of serenity and peacefulness that soothes the reader. This sensation is ripped away from the reader when he begins to describe the rot and the decay caused by the miserliness of the elite. By depicting the good found in the land with quasi-biblical language, the greed of the privileged becomes much more malicious and cruel. This contrast helps the audience grasp Steinbeck’s message of how the greed is causing so much turmoil in a state that was once plentiful and luscious. Steinbeck also relies on symbolism to portray his message.

Steinbeck uses light imagery by saying the quote(pg.38)”Instantly the table was brilliant with light, and of the shade threw its brightness straight downward, leaving the corners of the bunkhouse still in dusk”. This quote shows visual imagery because it represents light being shown on a table and some of the light going downward. It shows a scene of foreboding because it says corners of dusk representing darkness meaning later in the book something bad will happen. Steinbeck represents dark imagery in this quote (pg.44) He walked to the other end of the bunkhouse and turned on the second light. “Darker’n hell in here”. This quote represents kinetic imagery because it represents Carson walking. It represents tactile imagery because it is touching

In John Steinbeck’s, East of Eden, the characters go through difficult obstacles to get to where they want to be in their lives; whether the obstacles are internal or external. In this passage, one can see the conflict that Charles has within himself when writing to Adam, his half brother. This is done by the authors use of graceless diction, by choosing words like “scratch,” “splash,” and “race,” giving Charles’ letter a distressed or hurried tone, his repeated use of dashes throughout the passage, making Charles seem unsure of what to say, and his chilling use of similes when describing the house through Charles’ eyes. Steinbeck does this in order to make Charles seem on edge due to his solitude on the farm.

One of the families lives in a “tent [that] is full of flies clinging to the apple box that is the dinner table” and “buzzing about the foul clothes of the children, particularly the baby, who has not been bathed nor cleaned for several days” (Studysync 41). This visual and auditory imagery communicates their alarming situation of enduring their grody living conditions thus, causing the reader to empathize with the families and to perceive what they were forced to withstand. Through the use of a metaphor, Steinbeck displays the effect the poor living conditions had on the people. In another family, the mother’s “eyes [had] the glazed, far-away look of a sleep walker” after bearing a stillborn baby (Studysync 43). The metaphor is comparing the mother’s eyes to those of a sleep walker, who usually have open eyes that appear half-awake. The mother had lost her spirits and the will to do anything productive when she lost her baby. Losing a child is extremely tough, especially if the child never had the chance to breathe because of malnutrition and the reader can see her perspective and understand what she went through. Furthermore, Steinbeck uses logos. In a different family, a “father will not be able to make a maximum of four hundred dollars a year any more” since

The image of the tiger's "unblinking eyes that stare into the gold heart of the sun" suggests that the poet is seeking for a way to freedom. The images help the reader to visualize "life as bleak" as the poet is finding it hard to express herself and also thrill the reader with the hope created. Therefore, the poem is interesting. A fixed tone is created at the beginning of the poem.

In the collected works of John Steinbeck, he portrays how fragile the world and all of the creatures that inhabit it are through the use of mental instability in his writing and characters. The characters of Jody, Lennie, and Cathy all show major signs of mental uncertainty. All of the characters have different forms of the instability, but they all connect by having the same struggles of relating to the world.

Throughout the novel, Steinbeck uses Cathy's character to portray a human monster. Chapter eight opens with

East of Eden, By John Steinbeck, is a classical novel set in the post civil war and mid World War 1 era. The novel centers on two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, living in the Salinas valley in California. The main protagonist is Adam Trask, a passive man who marries the main antagonist, Cathy, a cruel and evil woman who manipulates others for her own gain. Cathy gives birth to two sons, Caleb and Aron, and chooses to leave Adam after his usefulness to her is through. Adam, heartbroken, moves to the town of Salinas with his sons hoping to start a new life. Several years later when the two boys are men, Caleb vindictively reveals who their mother is to his brother Aron, resulting in Aron’s death and Adam’s choice to Caleb to repent for his crimes or to succumb to them. The novel touches many topics, issues, and themes that are still prevalent in today's society. It deals with the societal issues of the battle between good and evil, the power we have as humans to choose between wrong and right, and the struggle of finding our character.

Symbolism provides an imagery that helps facilitate a deeper understanding. Taking place in the 1920’s, The Great Gatsby, is set during a time when society both put up facades while also striving to achieve wealth and high social status. The classic novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald cleverly uses multiple symbols throughout the novel to expose the issues with society at that time. The ultimate goal of this novel is to elaborate the class struggles and illustrate the goal to achieve of American dream. The Great Gatsby, The author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, uses the infamous green light, the metaphor of an egg, and pearls to show and support the overall theme of the American Dream.

Steinbeck describes the light as ‘growing soft’ in the barn. Steinbeck’s use of peaceful imagery crafts an atmosphere of tranquillity, equanimity and serenity and this associates to the notion of Curley’s wife being at peace and rest, however, at the same time, it also fashions a sense of sympathy within the readers as they feel contemptible that it is only through her death, that Curley’s wife is at peace. The word ‘light’ reflects this notion of serenity and positivity and it links to the idea of Curley’s wife being free from the discrimination that she tolerated throughout her short life. Furthermore, he involves Curley’s wife with the colour ‘yellow’ as opposed to the colour ‘red’. Yellow and red are two very distinctive colours and here Steinbeck uses their connotations to contrast with the character of Curley’s wife before and after she dies.

Steinbeck gives deep descriptions of characters to reveal their personality. For example, when Doc is introduced, the text states, “He can kill anything for

John Steinbeck Uses Symbolism to show how the main characters have hope in there american dream.  Hope is symbolised as light and hopelessness is symbolised as dark, in the book the characters notice “When Curleys wife first apears in the bunkhouse, both lennie and george notice the rectange of sunshine in the doorway is cut off.”  When they first arrive full of hope with the sunshine(light) coming in through the door than Curleys wife blocks it, it symbolsis that Curelys wife is blocking off there hope for there american dream.  This qoute is also foreshadowing that Curelys wife will also will ruin there american dream and cut of all of the little hope they have left.  He also uses the of the sun in the seanory of each paragraph “The sun came